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Successful people NEVER answer their phone.

"When we build let us think we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work that our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone upon stone, that a time is to come when these stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, "See! This our fathers did for us."
John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

Comment

Unfortunately, in today's world of endless information and communication, people (coworkers and customers alike) would rather waste time talking or writing about all the different ways to skin a cat rather than actually skinning it. For some reason, people get all butt hurt when you cut them off in conversation. Didn't use to be that way.

I don't need to know all the little details of what you were doing prior to your plumbing backing up. Name, address, phone number and the nature of the problem is all I need.
Like Jack Webb used to say on Dragnet "Just the facts ma'am. Just the facts"

I get the point of the video though, which is to get someone else to do the work for you.

Unfortunately, in today's world of endless information and communication, people (coworkers and customers alike) would rather waste time talking or writing about all the different ways to skin a cat rather than actually skinning it. For some reason, people get all butt hurt when you cut them off in conversation. Didn't use to be that way.

I don't need to know all the little details of what you were doing prior to your plumbing backing up. Name, address, phone number and the nature of the problem is all I need.
Like Jack Webb used to say on Dragnet "Just the facts ma'am. Just the facts"

I get the point of the video though, which is to get someone else to do the work for you.

I totally agree with you. There was a time when communicating in the workplace was more difficult and took some conscious effort. All we had was phone, fax and actually (gasp) walking over to the see the other person. Today, with email, people tend, if anything, to over-communicate. In fact, they spend countless hours writing diatribes in email back and forth that could be *completely* avoided if they would get off of their dead *sses and walk over to talk for three minutes with the other party. I know people that literally behave as though their job is to read and write email all day. Insane.

Fact is, most of the time email is pretty much like most meetings. They are not work, they are just talking about work.

One thing that Bob didn't mention is that (assuming you're in control) you should cancel *ALL* standing meetings. By this I mean ALL meetings that are held at a fixed time every week or every month. Meetings are expensive as hell... you should ONLY schedule them when there is a specific purpose, only necessary people should attend, and there needs to be a clear and purposeful written agenda. Having a meeting because it's Tuesday at 10 am and we always have a meeting on Tuesday at 10 am is just dumb. But it's common!

I think the most significant point of the video is that YOU have to retain control of YOUR time. You only get so much of it. If you entertain every phone call from every sales person or even people in your own organization, then THEY are controlling your time, not you. And they want you to do something to help THEM... it is most often not going to help you. Might sound cold but that's how it works. Most workaholic - you know, the type that spend 16 hours per day in the office - always entertain every interruption or distraction. I guess that's ok for them, but I think the goal should be to get your work done and get the heck out of there, and that means controlling YOUR TIME. Do it right and you will get more done in 8 hours than the workaholics do in 16. I learned this the hard way....but I did learn it.

Comment

I think a good reason to not answer your phone/email/etc. is not only that it takes time, but also that it interrupts other time you have. Having an hour or two straight to do work [at least complex engineering work], is much better than having 30 minutes, a 10 minute interruption, and then 30 minutes. It takes a while to get your head around a problem, and when you are interrupted you sort of have to start from sratch.

Comment

The successful business might answer their phone, but does the successful person who owns the business always answer the phone?

Depends on the business & growth. I believe the point he's trying to make is try to be efficient with delegation and time management.

So, to answer your question, sometimes yes and sometimes no.

I would tend to think that in most small startups the owner must answer almost all calls and try to manage time. As growth continues, the B.S. calls seem to rise in direct proportion, so delegation must be done to keep the owner "successful".

Depends on the business & growth. I believe the point he's trying to make is try to be efficient with delegation and time management.

So, to answer your question, sometimes yes and sometimes no.

I would tend to think that in most small startups the owner must answer almost all calls and try to manage time. As growth continues, the B.S. calls seem to rise in direct proportion, so delegation must be done to keep the owner "successful".

What's his definition of success? Thinking again....

J.C.

When I owned a small business, I couldn't afford a secretary/receptionist to answer the phone for me. It was a king-sized pain. If there was ANY way I could have afforded it, I would have hired someone to handle the phone in a heartbeat. The damn thing rang literally every 5 minutes. You couldn't get a any work done until after 5 pm, which in turn meant that you didn't go home until 10 or 11. Even the walk-in customers would get annoyed by the constant phone ringing. Often I would have to get one of the shop guys to cover the phones while I dealt with the walk-ins. Which meant that now TWO of us were not getting any work done.

I knew another owner in the same area who had the same issue. His solution was that he simply didn't answer the phone - no voice mail, he just let it ring -until 1 pm, leaving the mornings free to actually do work. He figured if it was important they would call back, and all his regular clients, vendors, and partners knew his "phone hours". I didn't think that this sat real well with his clients, so I never had the stones to try it myself... but nearly every day I was about ready to tear that damn phone out!!!... so I do appreciate what he was up against. A small business owner has less time, more stuff to do, and less help than the president of a large corporation. So not having your time wasted on the phone is even more important for the new entrepeneur.

Back then, my ancient Merlin phone system required a several-thousand dollar upgrade to add voice mail. Today, voice mail is super cheap. So that's what I would do... even though no one likes voice mail. I would return only the important calls... and, at MY convenience.

Comment

I think a good reason to not answer your phone/email/etc. is not only that it takes time, but also that it interrupts other time you have. Having an hour or two straight to do work [at least complex engineering work], is much better than having 30 minutes, a 10 minute interruption, and then 30 minutes. It takes a while to get your head around a problem, and when you are interrupted you sort of have to start from sratch.

I gotta agree with this 110%, distractive phone calls and walk-up questions from people who are too lazy to find the answer themselves are a PITA.

But then, there is the other side of the coin, you have people who NEVER return a voice mail or email no matter how important or time sensitive the issue may be. They figure (and I have had some tell me this) that you will go elsewhere for your answer if you don't hear from them quickly, and that is true but then time is lost because you are expecting them to do their job not duck their responsibility by not answering the phone or an email. And I am sorry to say but I find this is done more by engineers than anyone else.

"When we build let us think we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work that our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone upon stone, that a time is to come when these stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, "See! This our fathers did for us."
John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

I gotta agree with this 110%, distractive phone calls and walk-up questions from people who are too lazy to find the answer themselves are a PITA.

But then, there is the other side of the coin, you have people who NEVER return a voice mail or email no matter how important or time sensitive the issue may be. They figure (and I have had some tell me this) that you will go elsewhere for your answer if you don't hear from them quickly, and that is true but then time is lost because you are expecting them to do their job not duck their responsibility by not answering the phone or an email. And I am sorry to say but I find this is done more by engineers than anyone else.

One can go too far with anything, especially because his advice that might work for a CEO with resources like a secretary/receptionist won't work for one of the guys that he would be delegating to.